UPDATE 4/26/16 1:30 PM: ABC has confirmed Michael Strahan will be saying goodbye to the “Live with Kelly and Michael” audience much sooner than originally planned. ABC said Strahan will bow out on the May 13 edition of the syndicated morning show, allowing producers and co-host Kelly Ripa time to begin auditioning guest hosts to fill his shoes.
UPDATE 4/26/16 10:15 AM: “Our long national nightmare is over,” Kelly Ripa quipped Tuesday in her much-anticipated return to “Live with Kelly and Michael” after four days off amid her anger over the decision to shift co-host Michael Strahan to “Good Morning America” full-time.
Variety reports the host addressed head-on the source of her ire at being told of the decision after last Tuesday’s show, just a few minutes before it was announced to the press. The drama that ensued, with Ripa sitting out the show for two days before a previously planned vacation on Friday and Monday, “started a much greater conversation about communication and consideration and most importantly respect in the workplace,” she told viewers.
After 26 years of working for ABC in various capacities, Ripa asserted that she’d “earned the right” to have been treated with greater consideration in the Strahan shuffling process. She sat out last Wednesday and Thursday’s episodes for good reason: “I didn’t want to come out here and say something I might regret.”
Earlier Posting..."Our long national nightmare is over," Kelly Ripa jokes on her return to "Live with Kelly and Michael." https://t.co/CES9vnLynJ— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) April 26, 2016
Top executives at Disney and ABC have personally apologized to Kelly Ripa for last week's bungled announcement about the departure of her co-host Michael Strahan, according Brian Stetler at CNN.
The bosses apologized to Strahan too. The apology also extended to the Hollywood agents who represent the co-hosts.
Now Ripa is preparing to return to her talk show Tuesday, "Live with Kelly and Michael," and move past last week's controversy, according to several people close to the program.
The executives "expressed regret for the way Kelly was told the news," one of the sources said.
The personal apology was conveyed by Ben Sherwood, the president of the Disney-ABC Television Group, and his leadership team, including ABC stations president Rebecca Campbell and ABC News president James Goldston.
In September, Strahan is moving from "Live," which is overseen by Campbell, to "GMA," which is overseen by Goldston.
The executives had been working on making the move for weeks.
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